NO PASSPORT NEEDED
We took a family day
trip to the beautiful Welsh town of Llangollen. It was August 28 and a summer
bank holiday in England. There are usually 8 throughout the year, although
there was an extra bank holiday this past May for King Charles’ coronation.
Don’t quite know why they have bank holidays. It’s not like they are anchored
to a holiday like Memorial Day, or the 4th of July, but they are nevertheless
an excuse to take the day off and go on an excursion as we did to Llangollen.
Don’t ask me how to
properly say the name of this strikingly beautiful town on the River Dee in
Northeast Wales, but it is a popular place to visit, especially on a bank
holiday. Just under an hour’s drive from their town of Nantwich, our family has
traveled to Llangollen several times over the years and as we drove along the
rolling hills I joked if I needed my passport to cross the border into Wales.
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| Llangollen Bridge |
What one needs when
traveling into Llangollen is patience as the place brims with visitors, and
caravans and motorcycles and cars and bicyclists and pedestrians shuffle along
the streets and over the bridge that crosses the turbulent river popular with
kayakers and rafting expeditions, especially so on this holiday.
The beauty is captivating
and area establishments take advantage of the vistas as they cling to the edges
of the river while offering patrons fantastic views while they sip their pints.
AONB
Ice cream stands and trinket
shops with wacky looking Welsh language names will forever be enchanting,
although the true enchantment comes from the surrounding areas.
Llangollen and the River
Dee valley and the Clwydian range are designated as an AONB or an Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK.
As mentioned earlier, outdoor
activities like hiking and kayaking are popular, and there are several guides in town offering full and half and multi-day adventures on the Dee. To give an inkling as to what's available here's one guide company, the Bearded Men Adventures. With the younger grandsons though we were regulated to
cavorting on the rocks of an eddy in the river and eating a prepacked lunch on
a bench as we lazed about watching kayakers and rafts course the river.
Strollers
along Riverside Park on this festive afternoon were led by their dogs of all
shapes and sizes, completing the beautiful tapestry. The English do love their
well-behaved dogs. We watched a couple of massive dogs, small bears really,
cavort in the eddy, their owners not minding the spray when they shook
themselves dry. 
We were fortunate to
quickly find a parking spot in the Mill Street lot across the River Dee and
walked along the water’s edge for a while before crossing the Llangollen
Bridge, where we spent most of our time this visit.
Had we been interested we
could have taken a horse-drawn canal boat ride on the Llangollen Canal, or take
a steam powered locomotive courtesy of the Llangollen and Corwen Railway. We
did neither, Instead, after our meager lunch we sat on the outside deck of the
Corn Mill Pub for some pints as the boys ate ice cream.
RYDYCH CHI YMA (YOU ARE HERE)
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| Llangollen |
We did explore a bit of
the countryside as we drove to the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey; that’s Latin
for Abaty Glyn Y Groes, or Valley of the Cross. The abbey was part of the
Cistercian order and founded in 1201. The place thrived until 1537 when it and
all the other abbeys in Britain were dissolved by royal decree. Think Henry
VIII and the Church of England.
A caravan park nearly
surrounds the ruins, despite which there is a pious solitude to the grounds,
and as we explored the ruins we talked in hushed tones. There is an entry fee, and we strolled the
grounds admiring what was left of the abbey, with dramatic hills looming behind
and glowering clouds only adding to the ominous feeling of the ruins. The boys
played ‘hide and seek’.
VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY
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| VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY |
Then we drove up into
the winding hills, dodging wayward sheep, literally, as they walked on the road
without a shepherd. We slowly climbed the rural hills as the road curved onto
itself. Verdant farms were everywhere as well as sheep, until the hills got too
steep for farming, and we finally stopped at the Horseshoe Bend outlook, to
admire the land that stretched out below us. From this high promontory one can
truly understand why this area of the world is rightfully considered an area of
outstanding natural beauty.
It was the end of a
simple, beautiful, lovely family excursion.
Thanks for reading.
Love Janet and greg
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| HORSESHOE PASS OUTLOOK |
RAFTING ON THE RIVER DEE, LLANGOLLEN, WALES
© 2023 by Gregory Dunaj
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